Explaining group membership in the European Parliament: the British Conservatives and the Movement for European Reform

Maurer, Andreas; Parkes, Roderick; Wagner, Markus

doi:10.1080/13501760701817740

Cited by 11 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…For other observers, instead, the choice of a political group is mostly guided by the pursuit of office goals in the EP. For instance, the British Conservative Party established an alliance with the EPP Group (which was then renamed EPP-ED) even if they deeply disagreed over the EU (Maurer et al 2008 Moreover, 'respectability' to pursue office and vote-seeking objectives at home is only one specific instance of a 'domestic politics' explanation. In other cases, the domestic goals of the party can be advanced by the 'publicity' it gains through transnational affiliation.…”

Section: Explaining Group Choice In the European Parliamentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Love, convenience, or respectability? Understanding the alliances of the Five Star Movement in the European Parliament

Bressanelli

Candia

2018

Riv. ital. sci. polit.

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The Five Star Movement (M5S) formed the Eurosceptic EFDD Group when it first elected its members in the European Parliament (EP) in 2014. Two and a half years later, the M5S sought, without success, to leave the Eurosceptics and join the Liberal group. This attempted change of transnational affiliation is puzzling: why has the M5S tried to leave the Eurosceptic group to ally with the most Europhile group in the EP? How could this U-turn be explained? Relying on several different data -the EUANDI party dataset, official EP data, and original interviews with members of the EP -this article provides a systematic answer to these questions. We test three general hypotheses on group membership in the EP, using the M5S as a case-study. We show that neither policy congruence nor the pursuit of office fully explain the M5S's observed or attempted alliances. We suggest, instead, that 'domestic politics' is the key driver of the M5S's behaviour in the EP. Political group membership is functional to the Movement's strategic objectives at home. This article shows that national-level explanations of transnational affiliation need to be given more consideration, and highlights the 'second order' importance of the EU arena with respect to 'first order' national strategic objectives.

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Section: Explaining Group Choice In the European Parliamentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Love, convenience, or respectability? Understanding the alliances of the Five Star Movement in the European Parliament

Bressanelli

Candia

2018

Riv. ital. sci. polit.

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“…php?oben¼titel_d.html&links¼n_daten_d.php&inhalt¼/projekte/euro_elections/Homepage. html but this also coincides with an incentive on the side of potential new members to seek out the largest potential group to join (Maurer et al, 2008). The importance of belonging to a large group has taken on greater relevance with the increase in the EP's power.…”

Section: The Growing Dominance Of the Eppmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…In the 2009-2014 term of the EP, the EPP has remained strong even with the defection of The Right in the European Parliament Since 1979 61 some of its members, most importantly the UK Conservatives. Nevertheless, the fact that the EPP has not managed to retain some of its group members shows that there may be some limits to the expansionary success of the EPP despite the attraction of size and ideological flexibility (Lynch and Whitaker, 2008;Maurer et al, 2008).…”

Section: The Growing Dominance Of the Eppmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Members included the French FN, Belgium's VB, Italy's National Alliance and the German Republicans. In 2007, a group of 20 far-right MEPs again tried to form a group, this time called Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty (ITS) (Maurer et al, 2008). It gathered together representatives from France (FN), Belgium (VB) as well as Romanian, Bulgarian and Italian parties.…”

Section: The Continuing Complexity Of the Right In The Epmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Right in the European Parliament Since 1979

Wagner

2011

Perspectives on European Politics and Society

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This article examines the development of the representation of the Right in the European Parliament (EP) since 1979. The Right in Europe has always been more complexly structured than the Left. In particular, the Right remains divided on both culture and economic policy. Developments in the past decades have not significantly weakened this complexity. While urban-rural and church-state cleavages may have weakened, economic and centre-periphery divisions remain strong. Moreover, the Right has become more diverse with the rise of extreme parties and democratisation in Southern and Central/Eastern Europe. To what extent has this diversity been mirrored in the EP? Paradoxically, one strong trend has been the rising dominance of the European People's Party. This is because size itself has become an attraction due to (1) the growing institutional power of the EP and (2) internal rules. Declining divisions within the mainstream Right have also played a role. At the same time, the Right has remained diverse within the EP, with a plethora of smaller groups based around Liberals, Conservatives, Eurosceptics and the Extreme Right. These divisions have persisted due to the complexity of the European Right and the simultaneous fluidity of these divisions.

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“…The process was problematic because Conservative MEPs were divided over the issue ( Second, there is some evidence that the formation of the group represents policy-seeking behaviour. Joining the ECR over a larger group, would seem inconsistent with an attempt to improve a party's ability to influence the EP's legislative outputs (Maurer et al 2008). …”

Section: The British Conservatives and The Ecr: Principles Over Influmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Formation and Actions of Eurosceptic Groups in the European Parliament: Pragmatism, Principles and Publicity

Whitaker¹,

Lynch²

2013

Gov. & oppos.

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This article assesses why Eurosceptic national parties form groups in the European Parliament (EP) and examines in what ways two of these groups -the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) -operate in the EP. It draws on interviews with politicians and group officials, roll-call votes and expert judgement data. We look at the group formation process with a focus on the British Conservatives and UK Independence Party (UKIP) and find that the ECR was created with a mixture of policy-seeking and party management aims. UKIP's interest in the EFD is largely on the basis of distinctive practical advantages, such as resources for political campaigns. We provide evidence that hard Eurosceptic and regionalist niche parties in the EP struggle to agree with each other in roll-call votes on a range of subjects. Finally, we show that the hard and soft Eurosceptic parties studied here go about policy-seeking in different ways in the EP in line with their differing principles about the integration process.

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Explaining group membership in the European Parliament: the British Conservatives and the Movement for European Reform

Cited by 11 publications

References 14 publications

Love, convenience, or respectability? Understanding the alliances of the Five Star Movement in the European Parliament

Love, convenience, or respectability? Understanding the alliances of the Five Star Movement in the European Parliament

The Right in the European Parliament Since 1979

Understanding the Formation and Actions of Eurosceptic Groups in the European Parliament: Pragmatism, Principles and Publicity

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